Contact: Penny Velander, Policy and Performance Officer, ext 7479

This information is intended to provide an `at-a-glance' summary for members and will be lead into the full report, so there is no requirement to duplicate arguments at this point.

1 Purpose

1.1 This service aims to develop a policy framework for meeting sustainable development and transportation needs of Hampshire residents, communities and businesses whilst safeguarding and improving the quality of the environment

1.2 The Policy Development service fulfils all it's statutory obligations and has chosen to address many discretionary obligations.

2 Evaluation of whether the service meets Best Value

2.1 Progress on this review during the consultation stage has been slow and at times difficult, this is due to two important factors:-

· The major re-structuring and merge of the Surveyors and Planning departments into the Environment department has meant that some of the work of the review team has been superseded by events

· In April 2002 the Best Value process was streamlined and as a consequence the review procedure changed. As this review planned to span two years, additional steps from the new process that had not originally been planned for, needed to be included

2.2 Despite the factors mentioned above, the core review team have given considerable time and effort into carrying out the review as planned in the original Project Brief. An EFQM exercise was applied early on to establish how the service was presently operating. Meetings with the different stakeholder groups were conducted to both consult with, and, feedback on findings. Feedback from other authorities for comparison was disappointing due to poor response and therefore lack of information. However some very useful and positive comparators came from local consultancies. All stakeholders have been encouraged to challenge throughout the review. An officer from the Corporate Performance Team has been an active member on the core team offering advice on the Best Value process and procedure.

2.3 Due to the changes to the Best Value process the Policy Development review had not established a vision for the future of the service. Through discussion the core team felt that it would be beneficial to carry out the visioning exercise retrospectively. The extended team were invited to participate in this process and the resulting vision was agreed by the Environment PRC on 4 December 2002

3 Member involvement

3.1 The following members were nominated for involvement in this review:

· Cllr House

· Cllr Kimber

· Cllr Roberts

4 Outcomes sought

4.1 The attached report describes four delivery options considered to address the following service improvements:-

· Joined up working and internal/external communications including e-government

· Speeding up the process of preparing policies

· Community engagement, consultation methods and transparency of decision making

· External provision / working in partnership

· Monitoring and implementation of policy and monitoring of the services performance

· Costs and comparisons with others, which leads on to the question of the standard of Policy Development service which the County Council wants (eg a leading, innovating service or an adequate `follower')

5 The Review detail

5.1 Costs incurred since the review started in January 2001 are £18,800 and 216 officer days.

5.2 The preferred option, as identified through the consultation stage, is Option Two: service delivery by in-house staff with structural changes to secure substantial improvements.

5.3 Some stakeholders also felt that Option Three: Transfer to consultants those areas of policy work most suited to external provision, should also be given serious consideration were practical.

5.4 The newly formed Environment Department has established a Strategy Branch. It would be beneficial for both this Branch and the Best Value review team to collaborate on the detail of the Improvement Plan.

Recommendations:

It is recommended that:

· The Policy Development Best Value review team develops an improvement plan based on option 2 with consideration of option 3 were applicable and in collaboration with the Environment Department Strategy Branch

Section 100D - Local Government Act 1972 - background papers

The following documents disclose facts or matters on which this report, or an important part of it, is based and has been relied upon to a material extent in the preparation of this report.

Records of the Policy Development Best Value review team meetings and working papers of the Best Value Review, held by the Review Team Leader.